The Murrendi diggings are situated on the banks of the Meroo, about four miles above its junction with the Cudgegong River. The Meroo, here makes a large sweeping bend from about N. to S.W., and then back again to N.E. It is on an extensive flat of about three-quarters of a mile in width, called the Cricketer's Flat, running from the deep bed of the river up to the base of the lofty ranges that shut in the stream, that the main diggings are situated. These are on the northern side of the river, on land held by G. H. Cox, Esq., M.L.A.; under the preemptive right, whilst the land on the opposite side is that gentleman's purchased property. The diggings on the Cricketer's Flat extended over an area of about half a mile in width by some three miles in length; the lead -- or run of paying holes -- however has not extended over much more than about three rods in width along that length. This spot had not been worked for much more then about fifteen or sixteen weeks, and yet the whole surface seemed cut up with hardly a spot left in which a shaft could be put.
On the margin of the river, and towards the base of the mountains, out of the immediate run of the sinkings, the tents were clustered very thickly, whilst here and there a tent standing in the very midst of the shafts showed that some lucky digger had found a spot that he considered worth looking after. The total absence of huts, of slab or bark, was the first thing that struck me on coming on to the ground. All, even to the storekeeper, were giving under canvas, although the weather was now bitterly cold, and the breezes of evening and the frosts of morning would have rendered some more substantial residence much more enticing. This was accounted for, on my mentioning the fact to some of the older settlers, by the very recent opening of this field, the diggers being mostly new hands on the ground, and as yet uncertain whether the field would be likely to turn out a permanent working place of not.
Besides the Cricketer's Flat, there is another point or flat on the opposite bank of the river, just above the boundary of Mr. Cox's purchased land, where some 50 or 60 men are at work, and where a great deal of ground has been turned up. The whole population of Murrendi reaches somewhere 1200, of which about 800 are diggers, the balance being made up by women, children, and persons in trade. There did not seem to be the air of steady work about the place that I expected to find on so new a diggings. On the contrary, a great number of men seemed to be lounging about lazily with their hands in their pockets or standing in groups at the back of tents, sunning themselves, cursing the gold-fields generally, and this field in particular. To tell the truth, I met more regular crawlers here than I encountered throughout the whole of the other gold-fields put together, and consequently l heard a larger amount of grumbling. The find of gold, however, has been exceedingly partial on this field, and whilst some have made good hauls others, have barely got wages and, as a matter of course, those who expected the gold to come to them without hard work on their part, have got but very little. It has been owing to this inequality of distribution of the auriferous deposits that the population of these diggings has fluctuated greatly. Shortly after the first rush, the number of diggers touched very closely upon 2600. Many of these got disheartened by degrees, and left for newer rushes or more favourite localities, though for some weeks, the arrivals nearly counterbalanced the departures. Gradually, however, the arrivals slackened and the departures increased, until the number dwindled down to that at which I at present estimate it. Even now, numbers are leaving daily, though I was assured that there were more diggers arrived than departed.
Noticing all this, I took some considerable pains to get at the amount of gold produced, but was baulked in so doing at the very outset. None of the storekeepers were then, buying gold regularly, although, they took small quantities in payment for goods from their customers. One gentleman, who at one time purchased for the Bank of New South Wales, told me that in twelve weeks he bought on the field 3300 ounces, and at that time there were two or three other buyers; besides which an agent of the Oriental Bank used to visit Murrendi weekly for the purpose of buying gold. It was imagined by gentlemen who had been on the ground during the whole time, that for the first twelve weeks after this field was opened, the average weekly yield had exceeded 1000 ounces. Neither was it at all more easy to get at individual cases of success. I found the men all ready enough to communicate anything that did not relate to themselves; and the answers to the question of "How are you doing?"
were always either "Middling,"
or "Just rubbing on,"
or "Hardly making wages."
They told me also that it was absolutely impossible to say what any one party was doing, because though they might see them pan out but very little gold from the washing-stuff, yet they might have paid themselves well by the nuggets got in sinking, as these nuggets are distributed through the whole stuff, sometimes within a few inches of the surface, and sometimes lower down, there being nothing whatever to guide the digger in looking for them.
The sinking ranges from ten feet to seventy feet; the larger proportion of the holes being from thirty-five feet to forty feet in depth, the difference in depth being made up principally by the greater or less quantity of alluvial deposit to be gone through. After getting through the alluvium, a stratum of coarse gravel occurs, under which lies a deep bed of red clay; to this succeeds a white-coloured pipeclay, in which are bedded large boulders of slate, quartz, porphyritic rocks, &c. The gold is found in a light drift, lying under this mass, and is rather coarse in its character. It is highly-coloured, and is considered generally not to be quite so pure in quality as the finer drift gold of the Meroo. Some very fine large nuggets have been found here. One of 2½ ozs. was shown to me in Mudgee, whilst I heard accounts of several of from 8 oz to 12 ozs., and saw some three or four.
There are only two public-houses on the diggings, one on either side of the river, but the dearth of licensed drinking places is fully made up for by the quantity of unlicensed places of the kind, as the latter abound here to an extent such as I never witnessed upon any gold-field, even in the early and non-licensing days of the digging. There are some dozen of known grog-tents, whilst refreshment and boarding establishments abound, at all of which spirituous refreshment is as easily obtainable as any other. There have been numerous convictions by the Avisford Bench, this gold-field being in the Avisford district, for sly-grog selling; but the distance from head-quarters, it being some 20 or more miles, renders the Commissioner's visits somewhat infrequent, and no constable of any kind being stationed there, the community have an opportunity to do pretty well what they like. Many of the better disposed of the diggers complained very bitterly to me of the manner in which they were thus left entirely unprotected to shift for themselves, and urged -- perhaps with some, show of reason -- that they ought not to be asked to pay the miners' right of 10s., until something had been done for them. "The Government seemed to think,"
said they, "that we can get on without police or commissioner, so as we must try to do so, we may as well save our 10s."
All the work hitherto done has been by sinking, no trial of surface stuff having yet been made; neither has the bed of the creek been worked to any extent, further than to turn up the rough boulders in the search for nuggets. The operations have also been confined to the two spots I have mentioned, forming altogether an area of barely three square miles, much of which has not been worked. No machinery has been used, no ingenuity of any kind has been shown here, to aid the manual labour of the digger, all has been done by rude main strength, as in the very earliest digging days; and the construction of a very rough kind of dam across the stream, in order to fix a sluice, was such a rarity that it was pointed out to me as a work of art. When this community shall have settled down, and the stragglers have departed, I shall look to see this gold-field worked upon more system, and, consequently, upon more paying principles